Tower of Evolution Ch1

A.N.: Guys, I'm going to take on one original project on the side, so that I can start uploading it when I become free from work. I have two ideas, so I'm going to post of first chapter of each of them. Check them out and tell me which one you like better. Spoiler: Both are awesome.

....

Earth, September 6th, 2023. New York City, Manhattan.

In a not-so-typical friendly neighbourhood single-bedroom apartment, Aaron Fisk stood up after tying the knots of his shoes.

Ready to leave for college, he checked the time. The wristwatch read 7:58:14. He still had one minute and forty-six seconds before he needed to leave if he wanted to catch the train. Thus, he gave his apartment a once over.

It was an average-sized single apartment, which he'd chosen after much deliberation. It was well-furnished and decorated according to his tastes. The floor and walls were squeaky clean, not even a speck of dust could be seen, and all the things were neatly arranged in their respective positions. Two people could probably stay in the apartment even though it was for single people, but Aaron preferred to live alone.

Noticing an anomaly, he shifted the position of his couches by a few centimetres, so that they were now perfectly symmetrical, and also changed the position of the remote. Nodding to himself, he checked the time. 7:59:40. It was time to leave.

Aaron stepped out of the train while scrolling through his Viewtagram feed. He was completely unnoticeable among the crowd as hundreds of people of his age could be seen leaving the train and making their way toward the pedestrian flyover… Several groups of people could be seen chatting and laughing as they were making their way to the same destination, Colombia University. Everytime when Aaron saw them, he was reminded how different he was from them.

He was only three when he noticed it. It was those times when his busy and self-centred parents could still spare some time for him.
He noted that they would spend more time with him if he behaved more dumbly than usual.

Apparently, his usual behaviour was not at all 'cute' and a bit 'disturbing'. So he had decided to play 'cute' in order to spend some more time with them. Alas, his cuteness could only take him so far. His parents decided that they were not compatible with each other and split. Neither wanted to take care of him, so he was left to a nanny.

His nanny always called him a genius and he used to revel in the praise, something he never received from his parents, but soon, he realized that there was a difference between smart and eerie, after all. Aaron wouldn't call himself extremely smart. He had a high IQ, yes, but it wasn't abnormally high. The thing which made him stand out as the odd one among others was his thought process, which was completely different from ordinary people.

For example, if one looks at a person, they would look at their physical appearance, clothes and personality. On the other hand, when Aaron looked at a person, he would be able to see other things, hidden things, and so much more… He could always just… see through them.

It's something difficult to explain, and even more difficult to hide. But he eventually got tired of the looks and different treatment. So, he decided to hold back and blend in.

That was the decision that led him to become a regular run-of-mill school genius, but he always forcefully held himself back from coming to the top and he always made sure to get involved in sports to stay in the good books of popular students. According to Aaron, you don't need a lot of friends. You just need a few useful friends. The plan worked out perfectly for him in school so there was no reason to think it wouldn’t work for him in college.

“Aaron!” Someone called out to him from the crowd when he finally climbed down the pedestrian flyover.
Aaron easily located the person who called out to him and he forced a smile to appear on his face as a smile was expected in a situation like this. "Hi, Janice!" Aaron greeted the owner of the voice with a smile. "Are we waiting for the others or…" Aaron trailed off as he noticed someone familiar within the crowd and Janice quickly followed his gaze.

"Hey, Jacob!" Janice called out loudly while waving her hand. The boy named Jacob easily noticed Jancine and Aaron. He started to approach them with a smile.

Jacob patted Aaron on the shoulder. "Aaron, Janice!" He said, greeting them cheerfully.
These two were Aaron's friends. He didn't make friends with them because he wanted to, but because he knew what sort of friends he needed to pass his semester most effectively while avoiding all unnecessary variables.

To be honest, sometimes he considered ditching them for the sake of his sanity, but he knew he couldn't do that as Jacob and Janice were the most optimal targets to make friends with.

Janice, the redhead with her gorgeous looks and willowy figure was easily one of the most popular girls in the school. She was also a rich heiress and a social butterfly with a massive following. Her best trait, she would always look out for her friends.

And Jacob, the jock, was yet another good pick. A righteous personality and top jock with a full sports scholarship and NBA contracts already being offered from many teams, he is exactly the person you need to be friends with in order to not be messed with.
"So, are you guys excited for the seminar? I'm really curious what it's about," said Janice with anticipation.

Jacob shrugged. "Don't know about being excited, but I'm definitely curious. Especially since so many students from different majors are randomly invited."

The three of them walked to the Event hall together, where Jacob and Janice went separate ways to meet up with their other friends, while Aaron was once again left with the pleasant company of himself.
"Hey, faker~"
Aaron had just bid farewell to his friends with a smile when someone called out to him. He inwardly sighed. Of course, she was invited.

The fake smile vanished from Aaron's face as he turned around to meet eyes with Megan Blanc, the class bitch. With her raven hair arranged in a Bob cut and her piercing green eyes filled with contempt, Megan was the picture of arrogance and haughtiness, which was kind of justified, considering her high IQ, stunning looks and superior grades, but Aaron didn't dislike her for that. The main reason was:

'She can see through it,' he thought.

That was the crux of the problem. Aaron didn't consider himself to be the best actor or anything, but he was still a good enough actor to have successfully fooled everyone for all these years with his mask, but for some reason, Megan has always been able to see through the mask he had perfected for all these years and call him out on his bullshit.

Megan raised her eyebrows. "What? No fake smile for me? Are you alright?" She mocked.

"If it isn't the class bitch" Aaron greeted her back in kind. Most of the people who knew her called her a bitch behind her back due to her rude, haughty and arrogant personality. It didn't help that she didn't have a filter on her mouth.

"I'm doing okay, but if you keep treating people like this, then that title isn’t going to leave you anytime soon," he said as he brushed past her. From his limited interaction with Megan, Aaron has discovered that the less you interact with her, the better.

With his hands in his pockets, Aaron went to take the back seat and close his eyes with his head down. He didn't know why he was invited, but Aaron didn't think it could be anything useful to him. Thus, he was planning to pass the seminar while sleeping peacefully after learning what the seminar was about in the first place. He had tried to deduce why students from unrelated majors were invited to this seminar, but he couldn’t come up with anything.

He took a seat at the back, expecting to have a relaxing time, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, as a noisy couple came to sit in the seats in front of him and began making out, completely disrupting his plans. With his somewhat OCD mentality, there was no fucking way in hell he could sleep now.
Aaron cracked his eyes open and inwardly cursed. 'Why is it them?'

Aaron glared at the pair. The one with the spiky hair and a lot of piercings was Brian, the college delinquent, and the one trying to suck his soul out like a dementor was Stacy, the cheerleader, and, in Aaron's personal opinion, she was a Bitch with the capital B.

"Hey, can you two knock it off? I'm trying to sleep here," tried Aaron.

"Hmph!" Stacy didn't even look at him, but she did give him the finger. As explained, Bitch with a capital B.

"Go fuck yourself, loser," mumbled Brian, probably not wanting for Stacy to hog all the bitch-light.

Just when Aaron was wondering how he was going to survive the next two hours like this, a call from Janice came through his phone.

"Hey! Why are you sitting so far behind?! Come sit with us!"

Looking up, sure enough, he saw Janice wave her hand at him, surrounded by a bunch of ‘friends’.

Aaron couldn't help shaking his head. Janice is like this. Trying to look out for all of her friends. That's why she always tries to involve the loner Aaron into her activities. Unfortunately, her friend group didn't share the same sentiments.

Aaron has limited fakeness in him, and he can only pretend to be nice to so many people before he gets tired. So, he doesn't waste it on Janice's friends since they are just competition trying to latch onto Janice as well.

Usually, Aaron would refuse, but with the monkeys sitting in front of him, he didn't have a choice. Picking up his bag, Lucas went to sit with Janice's group.

Unlike Aaron, Janice's group was quite excited to see why everyone was called here. They were all abuzz with various theories and conjectures, predicting what this whole fanfare was all about. Though Aaron was just… annoyed. It didn't make sense why the college would invite so many students specifically. Especially since the criteria of invitation seems either completely random, or something he can't think of. And he didn't like that.

But, taking all the previous activities of the college into consideration, Aaron didn't think the Seminar would be anything useful. Most likely, the college has once again gotten a nice donation from some opportunists and they are here to sell something to the students. The invitation thing is most likely a marketing gimmick.

Aaron didn't have to wait long before the event started. Suddenly, the lights went out, and there was a rumbling sound inside the auditorium.

"Oooh! Special effects!" Exclaimed Janice, impressed.

But Aaron frowned. This is wasn't fucking special effects. And it soon became apparent to everyone else as well, when a crack opened up in the ceiling and they were all sucked in, unable to resist at all.
….

When he came to, Aaron found himself lying in a broad space, much larger than the auditorium, and people with different appearance were falling all around him.

[Welcome to the TOWER OF EVOLUTION]

[Say STATUS if you want to see your status screen.]